The designers of this 40,000-sq-ft center chose a box-within-abox concept, which one judge called “stunningly gorgeous.” The floor-to-ceiling ventilated double-skin glass exterior allows natural daylight to flood the interior space while a stainless-steel screen forms a layer within the glass cavity. Since 85% of the building area is glass, the structure uses sophisticated energy and lighting models to maximize thermal and acoustic performance.

As the world’s first museum devoted to musical instruments from around the world, this 190,000-sq-ft building houses more than 12,000 instruments and objects representing musical traditions from folk and electronic to ritual and classical. From concept to opening, the museum took only 39 months to build—an unprecedented time frame for a museum. It is designed to facilitate music research while providing community educational outreach. The judges were impressed by the timelessness of the design, the exterior’s Indian sandstone and the bright interior space.

The $138-million Johns Creek Environmental Campus, the largest membrane bioreactor plant in the U.S., treats up to 15 million gal per day of wastewater. But what sets the plant apart besides its amenities is the design, giving it the look of a traditional mill. The site includes a shared-use public park and trail system as well as an educational facility aimed at teaching children about the impact of water quality on the environment. Said one judge, “It’s a wonderful result and will have an important contribution to the environment.”

The new flagship retail store for O.C. Tanner arose from the renovation of the 1905 Salt Lake City Library. The transformation included the demolition of all interior walls, a seismic upgrade and restoration of exterior stone cladding, historical woodwork, cast-iron columns, plaster walls, ceilings and steel roof trusses. The addition of a spiral staircase, a two-story glass wall and new electrical and mechanical systems created a modern building that is suitable for a large retail jeweler.

This $92.7-million, 250,000-sq-ft project in downtown Stockton comprises a six-level office building with one level of subterranean parking. The design-build project, with longtime partners Hensel Phelps and Fentress, was completed ahead of schedule and under budget. The innovative design provides a modern, userfriendly space that incorporates features of the historical context and regional landmarks of the city and county.

GREEN BUILDING

U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Research Support Facility at NREL | Golden, Colo.

The U.S. Dept. of Energy’s 222,000-sq-ft Research Support Facility on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory campus in Golden, Colo., was designed as a net-zero-energy building. Completed in June, the RSF can house more than 800 DOE and NREL administrative staff and serves as a “living” green laboratory, calculating the building’s energy needs and displaying everything from light levels to electrical and water usage on TV screens in the lobby. The project is seeking LEED-Platinum certification.

This five-story Albuquerque facility was designed to treat the multicultural patient population of the area. To ensure the most advanced treatments, major diagnostic equipment was not installed until just before completion, requiring last-minute adjustments. Natural materials, a rooftop garden and ample daylighting provide patients with a spa-like atmosphere. “This is a place where people go because they are in deep trouble, and yet it looks like a marvelous place to visit,” one judge said.

The firms building this $37-million facility for the nation’s longestrunning mass transit system overcame an asbestos-ridden site to deliver the city’s first public building to earn LEED Silver status. The team completed the administration building two months early, ended up roughly $2 million under budget and worked 23,000 hours with no lost-time accidents or OSHA recordable incidents. Said one judge, “A great example of a project that can be boring, but [the team] went out of its way to make exceptional.”

HIGHER EDUCATION/RESEARCH

City of Phoenix Arizona State University College of Nursing & Health Innovation | Phoenix

Despite tight budget constraints, this project’s team created an urban structure that balances the functional needs of the school with innovative design. A elegant blend of three basic copper-panel profiles forms its stunning exterior envelope. “Value engineering … did not mean scope reduction,” says a judge.

Architectural Nexus’ Salt Lake City Design Center, an adaptive re-use of a 50-year-old structure that was most recently a Bally Fitness club, is rated Platinum under LEED for New Construction. Remodel of the 22,000-sq-ft space included structural upgrades for seismic-force resistance, increased glazing to maximize daylighting and new exterior aluminum cladding. The project also upgraded the mechanical system and added photovoltaic panels to help achieve the project goal of net-zero energy consumption.

After the 150-year-old Holy Cross campus in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, a new 20-acre campus was built in the Gentilly area. The initial phase included design and construction of a 120,000-sq-ft facility. The team captured the school’s program, transposed it into construction documents and executed that in the field. One judge said, “The work is well done, and it shows.” Another said, “I love the sense of recovery from Katrina in a way that it is better than ever.”

The Piers One and Six project is part of the new 85-acre Brooklyn Bridge Park that will stretch 1.3 miles along the borough’s East River edge. When the entire $125-million project is complete, it will be the largest park built in Brooklyn in 150 years. To save on materials, stone and lumber were recycled or reclaimed from other city projects. Old long-leaf pinewood from a warehouse on the site was reused for cladding and benches. The design calls for the creation of hills, built using crushed stone salvaged from the East Side Rail Access tunnel project. The team reinforced the topsoil with geo-fibers, which keep the soil virtually maintenance-free. Furthermore, the design incorporates portions of the river into the park as recreation zones.

At 56 stories, the 683-ft-tall Austonian had to adhere to Austin’s corridor setback requirements that all buildings offer views of the Texas Capitol and no structure fronting Congress Avenue rise higher than 90 ft. In structural terms, the building is designed much as if it were two 30-story buildings, with one stacked atop the other. It is now the tallest residential building west of the Mississippi River, the contractor says. One judge said, “It’s not easy to build a structure that big.” Another said, “Striking architecture.”

The former King Edward Hotel required a massive environmental cleanup and renovation to return the Jackson, Miss., landmark to its original grandeur. After it closed in 1967, windows were broken, copper-roof flashings and trims disappeared, and damage from fire and water was extensive. The 12-story mixed-use building is now the Hilton Garden Inn-Jackson. Judges said, “A remarkable project executed on every level beautifully,” and “I was swept up by the way King Edward came back from the dead.”

The $270-million vertical expansion of Chicago’s BlueCross BlueShield building—officially known as 300 E. Randolph—includes 230 tons of steel erected using derricks and tower cranes. Built more than a decade ago, the original 33-story tower became too cramped, so the owner expanded up instead of out, adding 24 floors. Such an unusual program challenged the builder to pull off what some say could be the future trend of buildings as cities grow denser.

The center, built on a brownfield site, converted an area eyesore into an urban retail prototype. The team dealt with midproject redesigns as well as a flash flood that brought waist-high water into the buildings just before completion. Said one judge, “We look at construction as art sometimes, and that did this for me.”

This 37-ft-tall interactive children’s climber was formed from 50 tons of structural steel. Each piece was input into a computer model to determine placement at unique angles. The structure then was loaded with a multitude of one-of-a-kind appendages: a bathtub, a boat, a rocket and a gangplank, to name a few. Weight and centers of gravity for the bizarre materials—as well as the visual effect of dozens of climbing bodies—were calculated using 3D models. “I don’t know how in the world they built it, but it’s just amazing,” one judge said.

While ensuring that waterproofing, vapor, wind loads and other Superdome repair needs were met, a metal-wall panel system with a structural sub-framing clip-attachment system was developed so a single wall panel can be removed from any location without disturbing the adjacent wall panels. The result employs an adjustable-clip system. New anodized panels match the original facade color, with a finish that is thicker. One judge said, “They had to come up with a custom solution, which is a fantastic fit.”

This roughly $226-million project required the renovation and expansion of one of the largest football stadiums in the country. The expansion included two sideline structures with 81 suites, 2,952 club seats, a media area, game operations, a commissary and two upper concourses as well as 22 new free-standing buildings. Renovations included the demolition of a press box, replacement of utilities, restrooms and safety-code updates. The work was completed on time, within budget, with no game interruptions.

After being destroyed in a wildfire in 2007, all that remained of the historic chapel, located on the Rincon Indian Reservation, was the original adobe bell tower and mission bell. The rebuilding project expanded and updated the 100-year-old chapel, which is used for ceremonial and community services. Judges said the project was compelling because the tribe, builder and designer pulled together and accomplished an impressive structure that “reverently knits together the past and present.”

This $1.3-billion, design-build upgrade includes a new 163,000-sq-ft Terminal B, renovation and expansion of Terminal A, a new 3,000-space consolidated rental-car facility, surface parking and roadway improvements. Judges say they were impressed with all the challenges the builders and architects had to overcome, as well as value engineering “done the way value engineering was supposed to be done.”

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